The latest on California politics and government

February 26, 2014

A picture is worth a thousand words. Or, in this case, a maximum of 140 characters.

Earlier this week, Rep. Ami Bera's office posted a Facebook message asking constituents for ideas about how to cut government spending.

"It's inexcusable that your hard-earned taxpayer dollars are too-often wasted on misguided on inefficient government spending," stated the post, which has since been removed.

The accompanying photograph was of the Rancho Cordova sign, and the same image had been used before on other posts by the Elk Grove Democrat.

Still, some city officials weren't happy with the implication. Rancho Cordova Councilman David Sander responded to the congressman on Twitter: "If you are looking for government waste, you are looking about 2,400 miles too far west!"

Sander said he was alerted to the post by the city's mayor, Dan Skoglund. Both Republicans have endorsed one of Bera's opponents, ex-Republican Rep. Doug Ose, but insisted the matter was unrelated.

"Here's a federal officeholder talking about waste and abuse and using a photo of a very efficient local government," Sander told The Bee. "We are really image-sensitive here."

Bera said through a spokeswoman that he has "nothing but the deepest respect and admiration for the city of Rancho Cordova.

"He chose to establish his local district office there, and features the photo of the Rancho Cordova signs on his website, and with many of his social media posts," Allison Teixeira said. "The survey he posted was about cutting wasteful federal spending, and he frankly thinks the federal government could learn a lot from well-run cities like Rancho Cordova."

Editor's note: This post was updated at 9:17 on Thursday to reflect that Skoglund is the current mayor.